Science: Polar 'satellite' could revolutionisecommunications

Communications satellites could be suspended above the Earth's polar regions by the pressure of sunlight, according to an American physicist. At present, most communications satellites are crowded into the 'geosynchronous' orbit around the equator. Not only is this orbit limited to only a finite number of 'slots', but the satellites are difficult or impossible to use near the polar regions.

Robert Forward, while at Hughes Research Laboratories in California, proposed using the pressure of sunlight to hold a spacecraft in position. Rather than orbiting the Earth, the craft will remain essentially stationary in space with respect to the Earth as the Earth orbits the Sun. Such a spacecraft will stay constantly visible in the polar sky. And there is no limit to the number that can be used.

Forward has coined the generic name 'statite' for such a craft, because it will strictly not be a satellite of the Earth. ...

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